Chapter 8: North Africa and Southwest Asia

Identifying the Boundaries

The realm of North Africa and Southwest Asia is large and expansive in terms of physical area, but its regions share a number of common qualities. The physical area of this realm is divided into three regions: North Africa, Southwest Asia, and the countries of former soviet republics of central Asia. Central Asia, also referred to as Turkestan, includes the “stan” countries from Kazakhstan to Afghanistan in the region between China and the Caspian Sea. The suffix stan, meaning “land of,” is a common suffix for country names in Central Asia. Afghanistan is the only country in Central Asia that was not officially a part of the former Soviet Union. The countries in the North African region include the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea from Morocco in the west to Egypt in the East. The realm borders the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara Desert, and the African Transition Zone. The second region, Southwest Asia, includes Turkey, Iran, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. The land on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea is frequently referred to as the Levant. This land area bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea now includes Israel, Lebanon, and parts of western Syria and is often included as a part of the Middle East. Technically, the term Middle East only includes the five countries of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, but in common practice, Middle East refers to all of Southwest Asia.

The Middle East is a European term that bridges the Near East Region of present-day Turkey and the Far East, a general European term for the regions of Asia including India and China. The Middle East can also be defined as the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Turkey, with its focal point of Istanbul, has been considered part of the Near East by Europeans. Because Turkey was referred to as the Near East and India and China were the Far East, the region in between became the Middle East. This term is not entirely accurate but is widely used to refer to Southwest Asia.

Turkey, which has territory in both Europe and Asia, was historically referred to as Asia Minor. The ancient region that is present-day Turkey. Most of the landmass of Turkey lies in Asia, but the portion that lies to the west of Istanbul is on the European continent, which connects Turkey with the European community. Cyprus is a small island in the eastern Mediterranean that has ties to Turkey and a historical connection to the Middle East. Cyprus is technically a European country and is a member of the European Union. Bordering Iran, Pakistan, and China, is Afghanistan, which has been a transitional country in the pages of history. Many empires have conquered it, and many groups have fought over its territory. Today, Afghanistan is a key country in the globalization process because of its huge mineral reserves, yet it has a volatile and unstable political scene.

The African Transition Zone creates a boundary for the realms of North Africa and Southwest Asia dividing the Islamic influence to the north from the Christian influence to the south. It is also a transitional boundary between the dry and arid type B climates and the more tropical type A climates of Equatorial Africa. The African Transition Zone can be volatile, with the potential for ethnic, cultural, or political conflicts.

Figure 8.1 The Regions of North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Turkestan